John
Nichols, The
Nation's Washington correspondent, who has also covered elections
for The Progressive and has had his articles appear in The New
York Times, criticized Vice President Dick Cheney on The Nation's
blog site, for comments he made on CNN's Larry King Live back in June."

Nichols
wrote, "Vice President Dick Cheney, who predicted on the eve of the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, that Americans would be "greeted as liberators,"
has in recent weeks been peddling a new line of spin. If Cheney was
not in charge of U.S. foreign policy, he could be dismissed as a ranting
lunatic."

What's
the 'spin' Cheney is guilty of according to Nichols? For saying he
thinks there's been major progress in Iraq and that, "I think they're
in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.'"

Nichols
then contrasts Dick Cheney's 'spin' to John Kerry's words before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971: "Any attempt to address
Cheney's rhetorical excesses brings to mind the words of a young veteran
from another misguided and unnecessary war... 'How do you ask a man
to be the last man to die for a mistake?'"

Nichols
goes on, "For Cheney, that's simple: Just keep telling the young men
and women who are marching to their deaths that they will be greeted
as liberators and that the enemy is so weak that it is in its 'last
throes.' In other words, just keep spinning a slurry of fantasy and
lies into U.S. policy."

I'm
one of those people who believes a picture is worth a thousand words,
and the one below certainly is powerful enough to make the point that
there are Iraqis who are grateful for the liberation that has come
to their country. And there are accounts of Iraqis who supported the
War in Iraq early on. For instance, when I interviewed Steven Vincent
on his book, In the Red Zone, on the show he shared of Iraqis
who told him while he was embedded there, that they wanted the Americans
to take Baghdad, but that they also knew Saddam Hussein had WMDs and
"would kill them" (the Iraqis) in the battle, but nevertheless they
wanted America to do it.

But
these kinds of accounts are seldom reported by the MSM. That's why
courageous journalists such as Steven Vincent have to. Steven was
a freelance journalist and author who made several trips to Iraq to
get the real story and report it back here at home. Tragically, Steven
was murdered this week while on his most recent trip to Iraq while
working on a new book on life in post-liberation Basra.

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As
terrible as this is for his family and friends, I think I can safely
say, just from my short interaction with Steven Vincent, that he would
not agree with Nichols that he died for a mistake. He believed
strongly in what he was doing and the liberation that is indeed coming
to the people of Iraq.

All
Americans will suffer the loss of this courageous journalist who was
doing his part alongside our brave men and women of the military.

Sharon is the President of The Center for Changing
Worldviews, and hosts Changing Worldviews TALK Radio which is heard on
KDIA AM1640 San Francisco; WITA AM1490 Knoxville,TN, nationally on Rightalk.com
and internationally on Oneplace.com. Her column appears on several online
news sites including American Daily.com, CaliforniaRepublic.org, ChronWatch.com,
Ediblog.com, MichNews.com, Newsbull.com, NewsWithviews.com, RaidersNewsUpdate.com
RenewAmerica.us and others. For further information on her lineup of guests
and topics visit: Website www.changingworldviews.com
Blogsite http://changingworldviews.blogspot.com
Contact: sharon@changingworldviews.com

I'm
one of those people who believes a picture is worth a thousand words,
and the one below certainly is powerful enough to make the point that
there are Iraqis who are grateful for the liberation that has come to
their country.